Teaching Tips: The SPONCH CaFe

What’s
on the menu at the SPONCH CaFe? The elements of life! Our host
Dr. Douglas Zook provides us with a clever way of remembering
some of the most common types of elements found as atoms in the
molecules of living
things. This mnemonic device is based on the chemical symbols
for elements in the periodic table.

The elements sulfur (S), phosphorus
(P), oxygen (O), nitrogen (N), carbon (C), and hydrogen (H) are
the most abundant in organic molecules, but calcium (Ca) and
iron (Fe) are also critical to life functions. Dr. Zook even
goes further with his students by adding “Maggie’s
SPONCH CaFe”, where Maggie stands
for magnesium (Mg). Of the 107 elements that occur naturally
on Earth, only about a dozen or so compose most of the matter
of an organism. There are many other elements, however, that
are very important and occur in trace amounts. Furthermore, different
types of organisms often have different proportions of these
elements.